The Good Life

Four years have passed since Andy’s previous studio album, This I Gotta See, and he has moved from a major label to an independent. Given both of those facts, The Good Life is surprisingly unsurprising—it’s more of the meat-and-potatoes mainstream country that made him famous, a collection of solid-enough songs lent distinction mostly by Andy’s swaggering voice. “Long Way Down” works up a sweat, and “Long Stretch of Lonesome” is an appealingly insistent thumper in the Waylon Jennings tradition. But a few too many generic tracks keep The Good Life from being quite the convincing comeback we’ve been waiting for.